Fair Values in Accounting for Financial Instruments Essay - 2

Fair Values in Accounting for Financial Instruments - Essay Example Along with the depth development of financial instruments and fair value accounting practices by national standard setting bodies in many countries, fair value measurements have helped to create a more accurate representation of fact. Because of this, the FASB, IASB and other agencies continue to improve the recognition and measurement standards of financial instruments. For instance, in 1990, Richard C Breeden, the chairman of the SEC pointed out that historical cost for financial reporting does not help to prevent and/or defuse financial risk. As such, fair value accounting should be taken as the measurement of financial instruments (SEC, 1990). Although many people support the implementation of fair value, the debate about this has not stopped and has become fierce; especially after a financial crisis. As means of providing an example, FASB No. 157 provides a definition of â€Å"fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.†(Deans, 2007) There also have another defines set out by IASB including IAS 32 (presentation of Financial Instrument) and IAS 39 (recognition and measurement) which Fair value is defined as â€Å"the amount for which an asset could be exchanged, or a liability settled, between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm’s length transaction. (IASB) IAS 39 defines fair value slightly differently from SFAS 157† (Laux & Leuz, 2009). Firstly, the information provided by the fair value accounting method can be considered as more relevant. Generally speaking, such information should satisfy the requirements of relevance and reliability at the same time. Brath explains the quality characteristic of accounting information. In this way, he proposes that it includes reliability, relevance, predictive, timely, neutrality, comparability, etc. (Ball, 2006). Historical costs

Philippine National Bank (PNB) Essay Example for Free

Philippine National Bank (PNB) Essay Facts: The petitioners, Spouses Esmeraldo and Elizabeth Suico, obtained a loan from the Philippine National Bank (PNB) secured by a real estate mortgage on real properties in the name of the former. The petitioners were unable to pay their obligation prompting the PNB to extrajudicially foreclose the mortgage over the subject properties. Subsequently, the petitioners file a Complaint against the PNB before the RTC for Declaration of Nullity of Extrajudicial Foreclosure of Mortgage. The Complaint alleged that PNB filed a petition with the Office of Manadaue City Sheriff for extrajudicial foreclosure on the petitioner’s properties for an outstanding loan obligation amounting to P 1,991,770. 38. During the foreclosure sale, the petitioners claimed that PNB, as the lone bidder offered a bid amounting to P8, 511,000.00. By the virtue of the said bid, a Certificate of Sale of the subject properties was issued. PNB did not pay to the Sheriff who conducted the auction sale the amount of its bid which was P 8,511,000.00 or give an accounting of how said amount was applied against petitioners’ outstanding loan amounted only to P 1,991,770.38. Since the amount grossly exceeded the amount of the petitioners’ obligation, it is the legal duty of the winning bidder, PNB to deliver to the Sheriff the bid price or what was left thereof after deducting the amount of petitioners’ obligation. PNB failed to deliver the amount of their bid to the Sheriff or the amount of such bid excess. After a year, the issuance of the Certificate of Sale, PNB secured a Certificate of Final Sale and as a result, PNB transferred registration of all the subject properties to its name. Due to the failure of PNB to deliver to the petitioners the amount of its bid or even just the amount in excess of petitioners’ obligation, the latter averred that the extrajudicial foreclosure of the said properties and the Certificate of Sale and the Certificate of Finality of Sale, issued by the Sheriff, in favor of PNB, were null and void. PNB disputed petitioners’ factual narration and asserted that petitioners had other loans, which had likewise become due. The outstanding balance of P 1,991,770.38 was exclusive of attorney’s fees and other related obligations. PNB maintained that the petitioners’ outstanding obligation was already beyond the bid price of P8, 511,00.00. The RTC rendered its decision in favor of the petitioners. It reasoned that given that petitioners had other loan obligations which had not yet matured but became due by the date of the auction sale, does not justify the shortcut taken by PNB and will not excuse it from paying to the Sheriff the excess bid in the foreclosure sale. To allow PNB to do so would constitute fraud, for not only is the filing fee in the said foreclosure inadequate but, worse, constitutes a misrepresentation regarding the amount of the indebtedness to be paid in the foreclosure sale posted and published in the notice of sale. The CA reversed and set aside the decision of RTC. It held that even assuming that indeed there was a surplus and the [PNB] is retaining more than the proceeds of the sale than it is entitled, this fact alone will not affect the validity of the sale but simply gives the petitioners a cause of action to recover such surplus. Failure to remit the surplus is not tantamount to a non-compliance of statutory requisites that could constitute a jurisdictional defect invalidating the sale. Issue: Whether or not the extrajudicial foreclosure of the mortgage constituted on the subject properties is null and void. Whether or not should PNB deliver the excess bid in the foreclosure sale. Held: The petitioners argue that since the Notice of Sheriff’s Sale stated that their obligation was only P1, 991,770.38 and PNB bided P8, 551,000.00, the said Notice as well as the consequent sale of the subject properties were null and void. The Court held that the statutory provisions governing publication of notice of mortgage foreclosure sales must be strictly complied with, and that even slight deviations therefrom will invalidate the notice and render the sale at least voidable. Nonetheless, we must not also lose sight of the fact that the purpose of the publication of the Notice of Sheriff’s Sale is to inform all interested parties of the date, time and place of the foreclosure sale of the real property subject thereof. Logically, this not only requires that the correct date, time and place of the foreclosure sale appear in the notice, but also that any and all interested parties be able to determine that what is about to be sold at the foreclosure sale is the real pr operty in which they have an interest. The Court disagree with the finding of RTC behind the Notice of Sheriff’s Sale that the discrepancy between the amount of petitioners’ obligation as reflected in the Notice of Sale and the amount actually due and collected from the petitioners at the time of the auction sale constitute fraud which renders the extrajudicial foreclosure sale null and void. Notices are given for the purpose of securing bidders and to prevent a sacrifice of the property. If these objects are attained, immaterial errors and mistakes will not affect the sufficiency of the notice; but if mistakes or omissions occur in the notices of sale, which are calculated to deter or mislead bidders, to depreciate the value of the property, or to prevent it from bringing a fair price, such mistakes or omissions will be fatal to the validity of the notice, and also to the sale made pursuant thereto. Thus, we are of the view that the Notice of Sale in this case is valid. With regards to the delivery of the excess bid in the foreclosure sale, the Court said that under Rule 68, Sec. 4 of the Rules of Court, the disposition of the proceeds of the sale in the foreclosure shall be as follows: (a) first, pay the costs, (b) secondly, pay off the mortgage debt, (c) thirdly, pay the junior encumbrancers, if any in the order of priority, (d) fourthly, give the balance to the mortgagor, his agent or the person entitled to it. The application of the proceeds from the sale of the mortgaged property to the mortgagor’s obligation is an act of payment, not payment by dacion; hence, it is the mortgagee’s duty to return any surplus in the selling price to the mortgagor. Perforce, a mortgagee who exercises the power of sale contained in a mortgage is considered a custodian of the fund and, being bound to apply it properly, is liable to the persons entitled thereto if he fails to do so. Thus, the fact that the mortgagee is retaining more of the proceeds than he is entitled into does not affect the validity of the sale but simply give the mortgagor a cause of action to recover the surplus. In this case, given that the Statement of Account from PNB, being the only existing documentary evidence to support its claim, shows that petitioners’ loan obligations to amounted to P6, 409,814.92, and considering that the amount of PNB’s bid is P8, 511,000.00, there is clearly an excess in the bid price which PNB must return, together with the interest computed in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the court.

Analysis of Computer Use in Developing Country Education

Analysis of Computer Use in Developing Country Education Abstract This study identified the extent to which Iranian secondary school principals used computers and explored the relationship between a numbers of variables related to ICT use. These factors included high level of computer access, strong perceptions of the attributes of ICT, high level of computer competence, as well as the high level of transformational leadership behaviours, all contributed significantly to the level of computer use by principals. All four constructs are equally important but have varying impact on computer use. Therefore, all four constructs should be viewed in an integrated manner in accordance to the conceptual model proposed in this study. Keywords: ICT, Secondary school principals, Computer use Introduction One developing country that is currently pursuing the technological track in education is Iran. Irans National philosophy of Education calls for developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally balanced and harmonious. The catalyst for this massive transformation will be technology which will improve how the educational system achieves the National Philosophy of Education, while fostering the development of a work force prepared to meet the challenges of the next century. With respect to this vision, Ministry of Education provided ICT related workshops and courses for principals and teachers. The plan emphasized that they should acquire seven fundamental digital computing skills (Kousha Abdoli, 2004). Although several institutions have completed the training programmes of their staff, research studies have not been done on the efficiency of this plan, knowledge, skills, and attitude that principals and teachers acquire during these courses. In fact, national programmes in developing countries are not based on research. Hence, successes of these programmes are limited (Albirini, 2006a). In addition, the Ministry of Education in Iran has invested much more fund to facilitate integration of ICT in schools. In spite of this large expenditure of funds, the potential for ICT to alter how principals use computers for instructional and administrative purposes, how teachers teach and how children learn in Iranian schools has not been fully realized since many Iranian schools do not use ICT in their teaching and learning and administrative purposes (Jahangard, 2003). It displays that computer was provided with no supplementary measures to enable principals and teachers to develop positive attitudes toward ICT in education and to use them. Also, in exploring the literature about the implementation of ICT in schools, an area which is noticeably absent in research on ICT implementation and integration is the role of the school principals as technology leaders. Although, some research studies have demonstrated that ICT has a huge impact on the ways in which principals work (Yuen , Law Wong, 2003; Schiller, 2003), the ICT research literature has tended to overlook the role of the principal as technology leaders (Schiller, 2003; Michael, 1998; Riffel Levin, 1997). This gap in the research literature is rather strange because there is considerable literature relating to school effectiveness, school improvement and change which identifies the school principal as a key factor in bringing about successful change in schools (e.g. Hall Hord, 2001; Fullan, 2002). According to Schiller (2003), school leaders are key factors in implementation ICT in schools. They have a main responsibility for creating school change through use of ICT and facilitate complex decisions about integration of ICT into learning and teaching. Although the role of the principal in supporting technology integration is very important there are little Iranian researches on the role of the principal in the implementation of ICT. Also, little is known about the use of ICT by principals and factors that are related to their level of computer use. This article will report on these issues from an analysis of data gathered from secondary school principals in Tehran, Iran. Review of the literature Effective leadership is an important element in the success of schools seeking to implement change (Calabrese, 2002). Anderson and Dexter (2005) reported on the analysis of data from the 1998 Teaching, Learning, and Computing survey of more than 800 schools in the USA and concluded that although technology infrastructure is important, for educational technology to become an integral part of a school, technology leadership is even more necessary (p. 74). Without the support of school leaders the educational potential of information and communications technology may not be realized. They play various roles such as change agent, lifelong learner, main supporter, and resource provider in relation to ICT implementation in schools (Han, 2002). If principals want to lead effectively their school in technology integration, they should embrace technology and realize the role that technology can play in the teaching-learning process. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a leader who does not us e technology trying to convince teachers that it is important (Cafolla Knee, 1995, P.3). Therefore, principals need to understand the capacities of the new technologies, to have a personal proficiency in their use, and be able to promote a school culture which encourages exploration of new techniques in teaching, learning and management (Schiller, 2003). According to Albirini (2006a), access to computer resources has often been one of the most important barriers for the integration of technology in both developed and developing countries. Norris, Sullivan, Poirot and Soloway (2003) reported on the analysis of data from the snapshot survey of more than 4,000 K-12 schools in the USA and concluded that there was a significant and substantive correlation between level of access to computer and level of computer use. Also, Rogers (2003) stated that the perceived attributes of an innovation are one of the important factors in explaining the rate of adoption of an innovation. A large amount of the variance in the rate of adoption of innovations, from 49 to 87 percent, is explained by five attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability (Rogers, 2003). The five attributes refer respectively to: (1) the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes; (2) the extent t o which an innovation is perceived as consistent with the existing values, past experience, and needs of potential adopters; (3) the degree to which an innovation is perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use; (4) the extent to which the results of an innovation are visible to others; and (5) the degree to which an innovation is experimented with on a limited basis. Regarding the relationship between perceived innovation characteristics and computer technology adoption, Al-Gahtani (2003) conducted a quantitative research in Saudi Arabia and found that relative advantage, compatability and observability were positively related to the adoption of technology, whereas complexity was negatively correlated. Hence, innovations that are perceived by individuals as having greater relative advantage, compatability, observability, and less complexity will be adopted more rapidly than other innovations (Rogers, 2003). Principals attitudes toward ICT have been recognized as an important factor for the success of technology integration in education (Han, 2002; Mooij Smeets, 2001; Rogers, 2003). Attitude is defined as a positive or a negative feeling associated with performing a specific behaviour (Ajzen Fishbein, 2005). In fact, an individual will have a favorable attitude if he or she believes that the performance of the behaviour will lead to mostly positive results and vice-versa (Ajzen Fishbein, 2005). Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) indicated that attitudes consist of three elements: affect, cognition, and behaviour. The affective element refers to the individuals emotional feelings or liking of a person or an object. The cognitive element refers to the persons knowledge about a person or an object. The behavioural element refers to the persons overt behaviour towards a person or an object. A complete description of attitude requires that all three components be assess by obtaining measures of all the three response classes (Ajzen Fishbein, 2005). Han (2002) conducted a case study on pre-school leaders practices in the use of ICT and found that principals who have positive attitudes toward technology are very helpful and supportive in introducing these new technologies into the school. For example, they encourage their colleagues to have ICT training, equip the school with sufficient computers and ensure staff has access to relevant technology. Apart from that, Liaw (2002) stated that no matter how capable the technology is, the effective implementation of technology depends upon users positive attitudes towards the technology. According to Noraini Idris et al. (2007), individuals with positive attitudes will have positive feelings about people and situations; have a sense of purpose, excitement, and passion; approach problems in a creative manner; make the best out of every situation; realize that attitude is a choice; feel that they have control of their thoughts; and feel that they are making a contribution through their wo rk. Therefore, principals who have positive attitudes toward ICT feel more contented using it and regularly incorporate it into their tasks (Kersaint, Horton, Stohl Garofalo, 2003). According to Rogers (2003), innovation-decision process consists of five steps which are knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. These five steps usually follow each other in a time-ordered manner. Knowledge is the first stage of the successful adoption of computer technologies and it is essential for other steps in the innovation-decision process. If principals do not have enough competent in computer use, they cannot be expected to adopt computer technologies into their instructional and administrative tasks. Without the knowledge and skill of computer technology, principals might have a high level of uncertainty that influence their opinions and beliefs about the innovation (Rogers, 2003). In line with this idea, Felton (2006) stated that competence is a key to the use of computers by principals on a daily basis. In fact, competence in operating a computer and in utilizing software may improve the quality and efficiency of administrative performance in s chools. Improved quality could lead to improved decision-making. In order to achieve high levels of principals competence in ICT, there is a need to provide training, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there is a great deal of literature evidence to suggest that effective training is crucial if principals are to use ICT effectively in their work (Kirkwood, 2000). If training is inadequate or inappropriate, then principals will not be sufficiently prepared, and perhaps not sufficiently confident, to make full use of technology. Hence, lack of principals competence and lack of quality training for principals can be barriers to principals use of ICT. Many technology experts have indicated that the integration of ICT in education should occur in the light of the cultural conditions of the country and the prevailing school culture (Albirini, 2006b; Govender Govender, 2009). In fact, cultural barriers, either societal or organizational, are very important among the barriers to the adoption of technology. Societies and organizations can overcome most of the technical barriers through different means of support, but cultural barriers are harder to deal with. It is widely accepted that culture, within a society or an organization, shapes individuals perceptions of innovations. In the field of education, it has been noticed that principals reactions to technology innovations are mediated by their cultural perceptions (Felton, 2006). According to Rogers (2003), a cultural perception is a very general idea of social system norms. Also, it refers to the cultural suitability of computers (Thomas, 1987). Furthermore, Albirini (2006a) carrie d out a study examining the factors relating to the teachers attitudes toward ICT. He collected evidence from high school English teachers about their perceptions of computer attributes, cultural perceptions, computer competence, and computer access. The sample consisted of 63 male and 251 female teachers. The results showed that computer attributes, cultural perceptions, and computer competence are factors that explain the greatest amount of variance in computer attitudes. Also, he stated that cultural perceptions toward different computer-related technologies are key factors related to both the initial acceptance of these technologies as well as future behaviour regarding their usage. Similarly, Lee, Choi, Kim and Hong, (2007) conducted a study on the relationship between users cultural profiles and technology adoption in the context of the mobile Internet. Their findings of large-scale on-line surveys in Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan indicate that cultural factors have a significa nt influence on users adoption perceptions of mobile Internet services. So, they concluded that cultural differences are a contributing factor in the adoption of technology, particularly in third world countries. According to Flanagan and Jacobsen (2003), leadership plays a key role in the success of technology utilization in education. Thomas (2001) stated that there is a strong link between educational technology and school leadership. Leadership style is exhibited by the leader could help or hinder technology infusion (Flanagan Jacobsen, 2003; Thomas, 2001). One of the best styles of leadership that can change and transform individuals is transformational leadership (Northouse, 2001). Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality (Bass Riggio, 2006). In other words, transformational leadership is a process that both the manager and followers should change themselves (Northouse, 2001). Although the transformational leader plays an essential role in precipitating change, followers and leaders are inextricably bound together in the transformation process (N orthouse, 2001). This type of leadership is becoming more and more important to organizations, as workforces become more diverse, technology improves and international competition heightens. Transformational leadership is comprised of four distinct dimensions: charismatic leadership or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration (Bass Riggio, 2006). Idealized influence (attributed) demonstrates attributes of principals that motivate respect and pride and display a sense of power and confidence; idealized influence (behaviour) refers to the principals behaviour to communicate values, purpose, and importance of mission; inspirational motivation refers to leaders that motivate and inspire others by challenging them to exert effort; Intellectual stimulation stimulates followers efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching old situations in new ways; and individualized consideration focuses on development and mentoring of followers and attends to individual needs(Bass Riggio, 2006). Beatty and Lee (1992, as cited in Thite, 2000) conducted several case studies of the implementation of CAD/CAM systems in numerous British and Canadian companies in an effort to investigate the linkage between leadership and technological change in organizations. Through semistructured interviews and using a critical incident approach to assessing leadership abilities, the researchers tracked managerial involvement throughout the implementation process. The outcome of their qualitative research suggests that a transformational approach to leadership is likely to be more effective in overcoming barriers to change than a transactional leadership approach that concentrates on technical problem solving to the neglect of people and organizational issues. According to Burns (2003), transactional leadership involves exchanging one thing for another. In fact, the effective transactional leaders are expert in giving and taking. This style is useful for stable situations but is less useful for organizations that are faced to environmental turbulence or rapid change (Kirkbride, 2006). Transactional leadership was measured by contingent reward and management-by-exception ­ (active and passive). Contingent reward leaders explain the expectations of followers and the compensation they will receive if they meet their performance expectations. Management-by-exception-active leaders attend to followers mistakes and failures to meet standards and management-by-exception-passive leaders react to correct action after problems become serious enough (Bass Riggio, 2006). Regarding the importance of transformational leadership as an influence on principals use of technology, Christopher (2003) conducted a study at the University of Virginia. A self-designed instrument was used in this study. Leadership items were taken from Bass and Avolios Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader Form. Surveys were sent to a random sample of 397 principals throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, and 185 principals participated in the survey. Her analysis indicated that the overall extent that principals used decision support technologies was significantly correlated with their perceptions of all four transformational leadership behaviors (individual influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration). Also, she suggested that educational leadership programs should be provided to train principals to use technology as a management tool. If principals do not use technology on a consistent basis; the principal should not expec t the faculty to use technology regularly. Modeling the use of technology provides an affective method for exposing teachers to new strategies and demonstrating to the staff that it is acceptable to take risks and make mistakes, without the fear of retribution (Dawon Rakes, 2003) The study The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which secondary school principals use computers in Tehran (a large province in Iran) and to explore factors related to level of computer use by principals. Selected factors used in this study were based on Rogers (2003) diffusion theory, Technology Acceptance Model, and previous researchs which include perceived computer attributes; computer competence; computer access; principals attitude toward computers; leadership style of principals; and cultural perceptions. Principals profiles (gender, age, and administrative experience, type of school, and academic degree, as well as information regarding background in computer training) were also included in order to ensure maximum possible control of extraneous variables by building them into the design of the study (Gay Airasian, 2000). More specifically, this study addresses the following questions: What is the level of computer use by secondary school principals? What are the principals attitudes toward computers? What are the principals perceptions of: Computer attributes? Their level of computer competence? Cultural relevance of computers to Iranian society and schools? Their level of access to computers? What is the leadership style (transformational and transactional leadership) of principals? What is the relationship between the level of computer use by secondary school principals and their perceptions of each of the above variables? What is the proportion of the variance in the level of computer use by secondary school principals that can be explained by the selected independent variables and the relative significance of each independent variable in explaining the dependent variable? Methodology This was a descriptive study of an exploratory nature. Creswell (2003) stated that exploratory studies are most advantageous when not much has been written about the topic or the population being studied (p. 30).The target population in this study was Iranian secondary school principals in the province of Tehran during the 2007-2008 school years. The list of principals was based on the secondary principals Directory. The Directory is maintained and updated on a quarterly basis by Tehran Department of Education. The total number of secondary school principals was 1312 in the Directory of the Department of Education in Tehran. Furthermore, a set of questionnaire was used to obtain the required data for this study. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part A measured the perceived level of computer use by principals. Factors that were related to it were measured in part B. Questionnaires were distributed to 320 sample principals selected randomly from the population. In this study, stratified sampling was used because Tehran is one of the biggest cities in Iran and consists of 19 educational areas. Also, the population to be sampled was not homogeneous but, in essence, consisted of several subpopulations (Wiersma, 1995). When sub-populations vary significantly, it is advantageous to sample each subpopulation (stratum) independently. Researcher used this stratified sampling method to have less variability in selection. Two indispensable characteristics of measurement that must be considered in establishing the appropriateness and usefulness of measurement instrument are reliability and validity. Although theses instruments were valid, face and content validity of these instruments were established again by a panel of expert. To ensure that Iranian secondary school principals had a complete comprehension of the instrument used in the study, the survey was translated from English into Persian using the double back translation method to ensure the accuracy of the Persian version. Furthermore, Cronbachs alpha was used to measure internal consistency and calculated via the SPSS 15 statistical package. Cronbach alpha is the most common form of internal consistency reliability coefficient. The Cronbachs alpha coefficients for these scales were: Computer Access Scale=0.867, Computer Attributes Scale =0.909, Attitude toward ICT Scale =0.92, Computer Competence Scale=0.97, Cultural Perceptions Scale=0.611, Transformational leadership style Scale=0.812, Transactional leadership style Scale=0.596 and Level of computer use Scale=0.917. To carry out this study, first, approval was obtained from the Ministry of Education and also contact was made with the research department of Tehrans Ministry of Education A meeting was arranged to discuss the proposed study. Furthermore, a letter of introduction and a questionnaire packet were delivered to the superintendent in the research department for review. Finally, approval was received from the superintendent and permitted the researcher to attend the principals meeting in each educational area of the Ministry of Education. A total of 350 pockets were distributed among all members of the sample in these sessions. In the packet, there were materials. These materials include a cover letter, the questionnaire, and a stamped, addressed return envelope was enclosed for some respondents convenience in returning the completed questionnaires. The completed questionnaires were collected at the end of these sessions. Principals who could not fill their questionnaires completely were given approximately three weeks from that date to return the questionnaires by mail. In all, 350 surveys were distributed, 320 were returned, resulting in a return rate of 91.4%. All of the returned surveys, a total of 320, were used in the analysis. In this study descriptive statistics were used to describe and summarize the properties of the mass of data collected from the respondents (Gay Airasian, 2000). Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between each of the independent variables and the level of computer use by secondary school principals in Tehran. Furthermore, multiple regression was used to measure the degree to which the independent variables would explain the proportion of variance in the dependent variables and to identify the relative significance of each independent variable in explaining the dependent variable. By convention, an a level of 0.05 was established a priori for determining statistical significance. Findings and Discussion The findings indicated that about 51.6% of the respondents were males and more than half of the respondents (50.3%) were within the 45-54 age range. About 44.7% of the respondents had 21 or more years of experience. More than half of the respondents (53.1%) worked in private schools, and approximately 60.3% of the respondents held bachelors degrees. Moreover, the majority of the participants (95.5%) reported that they had computer training, and 83.8% of them had more than 60 hours training. In terms of the type of training, more than half of the principals participating in the study (52.8%) reported that they received their training through in-service training. Computer Use by Principals The dependent variable, level of computer use, was quantified by the score of 39 items using a five-point Likert scale. Each item was rated by respondents from 1 (Never use) to 5 (use daily). This scale was developed by Felton (2006). According to this questionnaire, four domains of computer use such as Internet use, hardware and software use, instructional use, and administrative use were measured. Table 1 Distribution of Mean Scores on the Computer Use Scale According to Table 1, the principals perceptions of the level of computer use were moderate; with an overall mean score of 3.32 (SD= 0.76). Also, findings indicated that principals spent a few times a week working on their computers. It would seem that Iranian principals need effective and extensive trainings to raise their proficiency in computer use and integrate technology into their schools. Moreover, analysis of collected data on the computer use scale showed that among the subscales of the level of computer use, Internet use had the highest mean (M = 3.49). Also, findings showed that nearly all the respondents used the Internet at home and at school , and the most frequent use of Internet was for sending and receiving e-mail (46.9% 2 or 3 times a week). It would seem that e-mail was the most accepted application among principals who were surveyed. In fact, there may be several reasons for this—e-mail is efficient, widely available, and effective. Thus, it is not surprising that email was accepted and used far more by the sample population of this study. Principals can increase their professional knowledge in the form of knowing current research, new technologies, and best teaching practices through the use of the Internet. Findings of this study showed that most of the respondents used a web browser a few times a week to explore professional and educational resources. Three reasons may underline the obtained results. The first possible reason is that low telecommunication density and very low bandwidth during peak hours sometimes makes it impossible to download files or software. Furthermore, most of the principals have little Internet experience; it was not comfortable for them to spend time on uses other than e-mail or some sort of urgent browsing. Lastly lack of knowledge and skill for searching and downloading the valuable professional and educational resources also limit the use of the Interne. In fact, the Internet can be an avenue for researching information and data. It helps principals to find information regarding their pr ofession and educational subjects in order to develop processes for effective decision-making and problem solving which result in better accountability (Felton, 2006). Therefore, trainings should be provided for principals to learn all possible Internet resources with underlying techniques of strategic browsing to enhance their Internet literacy (Atkinson Kydd, 1997). As for the hardware and software use subscale, the main use for computers was in word processing, whereas construction of spreadsheets, databases and presentations (such as Powerpoint) was used never or a few times a month. Only 2.5 percent of principals stated that they read spreadsheets daily at work with 20.0 percent indicating use 2 or 3 times a week, while 56.9 percent indicated that they had read never or a few times a month a spreadsheet. These results are consistent with Schillers (2003) study. He found that the word processing was the most frequently utilized software among the principals and they used it to create documents and slides. Regarding the instructional use domain, the majority of participants indicated that they two or three times a week used computers for recording observation; monitoring student achievement for specific objectives and grades; creating master schedules; recording discipline referrals; writing up classroom observations; monitoring achievement test data; locating curriculum resources; developing or write curriculum; and creating graphs and charts. Plomp and Pelgrum (1992) stated that one way in which computers might work their way into the school is through administrative use and that this might lead to the use of computers in instruction. An examination of data showed that mean score of the administrative use subscale was lower than another subscales, and computer use for instructional purposes was generally ahead of administrative uses. Moreover, findings indicated that within the area of administrative uses, communicating with staff, and members of the wider school, initiating and sust aining collaborative activities with colleagues within and outside their school were the areas of greatest use, while financial matters, maintaining of administrative records about students, using a programme to analyze information for solving problems, using technology to support levels of professional collaboration, and using technology to participate new kinds of professional development were the areas of least use. Therefore, the early assumption that the introduction of computers into schools for administrative purposes would spread to their use for instructional purposes was not supported by the data. Principals Attitudes toward ICT in Education Attitude scale contained 23 items that asked respondents to describe their attitudes towards ICT. This scale was developed by Albirini in 2006a and comprised of three subscales: affective domain; cognitive domain, and behavioral domain. Respondents attitudes were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicated positive attitudes towards ICT while lower scores indicated less positive attitudes. Table 2 Distribution of Mean Scores on the Attitude toward ICT Scale As Table 2 illustrates, principals attitudes towards ICT were positive, with an overall mean of 4.05 and a standard deviation of 0.44. Principals positive attitudes towards ICT exhibit their initiation into the innovation-decision process (Rogers, 2003). It seems that Iranian principals have already gone through the Knowledge and Persuasion stages (Rogers, 2003) and are probably proceeding to the Decision phase. As many theorists have indicated, attitudes can often foretell future behaviours (Ajzen Fishbein, 2005). Thus, it can be concluded that principals who have positive attitudes towards ICT in education, use computer in their administrative and instructional tasks once computers become more available to them. At this stage, principals exp

To What Extent Curleys Wife a Victim in Of Mice and Men Essay

In Of Mice & Men, the character Curley’s Wife is depicted as flirtatious, promiscuous, and insensitive. However, her husband Curley sees her as only a possession. Most of the workers at the ranch see her as a tart, whereas Slim, the peaceful and god-like figure out of all the men, see her as lonely. This answer will tell us to which extent, is Curley’s wife a victim, whether towards her flirtatious behaviour, or to everyone’s representation of her. The character of Curley’s Wife is very hard to unravel, as throughout the book, Steinbeck’s representation of women through characters such as George and Candy, is very harsh. This is because the sociological opinion at that time was that they were either, mothers, sisters, or prostitutes, as the audience soon see, George and other ranch workers refer to her as â€Å"bitch† â€Å"loo loo† and â€Å"tramp†. There were also a growing number of prostitutes during the Great Depression period, as they would offload their services to those whom were able to pay and have some decent income during the Depression. Other aspects that may make Curley’s Wife seem like a tart, is Curley’s â€Å"Glove Fulla’ Vaseline†. Curley literally keeps a glove full of Vaseline, in order to keep his hand soft, possibly for a sexual act. Curley boasts to Candy that the hand is for his wife, which tells us that she gives him consent to do these acts to her, and also, Curley’s nerve to inform fellow workers about his glove shows that he believes that his own wife is a tart, which is very controversial today, but back then, women were seen as nothing more than possessions, yours to do what you will. George informs Lennie to avoid Curley’s Wife at all costs, and not to talk to her, because of her promiscuous behaviour, he believes t... ...ars for the fidelity of his wife as he believes there is a chance that Slim could be with her, despite his good nature. This makes the audience believe that Curley knows his wife is capable of anything, and that he would rather have her under his control. However, the poignant side to Curley’s Wife’s victimisation is when she is victimised due to the stereotypical image of women, either mother or prostitute. This adds a dark shadow over her complicated character, because the way she dresses, and the shoes she wears, especially at the ranch of all places, is unnatural. Also, her manipulative ways ironically cost her life, as she was probably toying with Lennie being mentally handicapped. Overall, I believe that the way that Curley’s Wife has cast her impression upon everyone, has eventually made her a victim of society, the ranch workers, and most importantly, herself.

Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne Rebecca Townsend Hum2235 Dr. Hoover Edison College Fall 2012 Townsend 1 The painting of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne took more than a decade to complete. It was created in the 16th century, in Florence Italy. A young master artist declined the original commission for The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and suggested Leonardo da Vinci. The monks who commissioned the painting, an artifact of Christ’s family tree, gave Leonardo a workroom.The figures in the picture are of Saint Anne representing the grandmother, the Virgin as mother (Mary/Madonna), the Child as Christ, and the lamb as the future sacrifice of Jesus. They are closely intertwined in the painting showing their tight bond in Christian History. Da Vinci could not separate Christianity from his work. Leonardo in his painting as well as in his life seemed to cultivate a sense of mystery (Capra XIX). The monks of the Florentine Santissima Annunziata commissioned Leonardo to pa int The Virgin and Child with St. Anne as an altarpiece for their high altar. In his typical fashion, Leonardo did not complete the work on time.The monks, eager for their altarpiece had to commission another artist to complete the work. The monks approached Filippo Lippi to complete the work Leonardo had started. Filippo Lippi was the artist that painted Madonna and Child with Two Angels in 1465. Lippi was the artist who had initially rejected the commission suggesting the monks give the project to Leonardo. Lippi considered Leonardo to be a superior artist. Lippi agreed to finish the project but died before its completion. After Lippi died, the monks had a young Florence artist named Perugino finally complete the piece.At last, the monks of the Santissima Annuziata in Florence had their painting for their high altar. Some consider the painting to be a treasure of esoteric and occult wonders. Some are fascinated by the sight of St. Anne supporting her heavy daughter on her knee, wi th no visible means of support (Budny36). Townsend 2 It’s hard to find any evidence of Leonardo’s beliefs in his paintings, since there are no written records that have survived if they ever existed. Leonardo believed that a good artist must also be a good scientist in order to best understand and describe nature.The humanistic, naturalistic, and scientific aspects of Leonardo’s life and work are not always clear because he was an original Renaissance man [Leonardo’s art, scientific investigations, technological inventiveness, and humanistic philosophy were all bound] together. During the 16th century he made numerous drawings and sketches with different themes that eventually lead to this famous artifact The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. Various designs still exist of the version painted in 1510. Leonardo could not fuse the two qualities he desired: an abstract formula and the immediacy of life.The final painting now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The painting is a complex and masterful synthesis of his previous variations (Capra 105). In some research it is stated that this artifact is unfinished, even though he had worked on this painting possibly for eight or nine years (Bramly 321). Leonardo had a habit of never finishing his work. Leonardo had drawn many different cartoons painting and sketches leading up to the final painting of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. One of his cartoon sketches had St. John the Baptist kneeling next to Christ (Capra 105). Leonardo switched St.John to a lamb in the final painting. The lamb (sacrificial animal) represents passion suffering in Christ’s destiny. It is not known why Leonardo replaced St. John, who was Christ’s cousin, with a lamb. He painted the Christ child as being about a year old. It looks as if he is slipping out of his mother’s hands and trying to grab hold of his destiny, the lamb. The lamb, being embraced by Christ has his head bent, while its tail a nd hind legs are clearly indicated to be in a comfortable place (Johannes 86). Townsend 3 Leonardo put his thoughts to paper and painted through, light, shadow, and geometry, using three dimensions.Da Vinci declared, â€Å"There are three kinds of perspective. † The first is concerned with the reason for the diminution of things as they form from the eye. Second contains the way in which colors vary as they form the eye. The third and last declaration of how objects should appear less distinct the more distant they are. Examples, perspective of disappearance (Capra 219). Perspective in painting was his destiny. From the pyramidal construction to the fact that only three feet belonging to the figures are visible, everything in the picture seems to be threefold.In fact in this painting, Leonardo was pursuing a theological meditation on the destiny of Christ, which had begun in his early painting Virgin of the Rocks (Bramly 320). Most research indicates the rocks, mountain strea ms, and escarpments of his childhood made up his private landscape in his paintings (Bramly 86). Leonardo depicts the women as sister like in age even though they are indeed mother and daughter. Saint Anne, the mother of Virgin and Child, sits with her daughter on her lap. The Virgin is half rising from her sitting position and she appears to want to restrain her daughter from separating the Child and lamb (Kemp 273).It is unusual for Mary to be portrayed in her mother’s lap. The painting may have more meaning to it than the Passion of Christ. Saint Anne perhaps represents the Church in this painting. Art critics have admired the unity of the three figures, the freedom of movement, the sweet and melting quality of the faces, and the mountains in the background. The family figures almost blend into each other in their rhythmic balance, with Leonardo’s dreamy mountains, foreshadowing the landscape of the Madonna, in the background (Capra 105). What better way to describe the bond of maternal love uniting three generations?Leonardo had written in a short note in one of his journals, The Virgin and Child Townsend 4 with Saint Anne means â€Å"the glorification of motherhood†. The Virgin and Saint Anne in this masterpiece seem to be about the same age in the painting, with their two bodies merging almost into one. Leonardo gave the child two mothers both graced with the blessed smile of happiness. To the viewer’s eye, the painting may imply to evoke his thoughts on his childhood which the painter wanted our thought as childhood had been divided between his real mother and his stepmother.He may have united them in his mind as he did in his painting, a picture that no one could have painted except of Leonardo De Vinci (Bramly 318). Both women, Saint Anne and the Virgin, have dedicated their lives to God, which had touch Da Vinci. One research source stated that in the painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, the Virgin is designed first, as she is in so many of his drawing, and the landscape seems to flow from her. The Painting is designed by Da Vinci in a diagonal, where we formerly saw a pronounced swing down from top right at the crown of the tree, through St .Anne’s left arm and elbow, through the successive arm/knee/arm/knee configuration of the Virgin, down to the placement of St. Anne’s feet on the then more brightly â€Å"spotlighted† left section of the rocky foreground. Against that progression, we saw in the earlier state how Leonardo had orchestrated a countervailing upper left to the bottom right sweep through the principal heads and the arms of the Virgin and the Child, down to the rump and tail of the lamb. This movement was decisively echoed and enforced by the parallel diagonals of the Virgin’s right leg and St.Anne’s left leg (Johannes 3). It is stated that Saint Anne’s left arm was painted the same way in another Leonardo da Vinci painting. Townsend 5 Leo nardo’s composition of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is perhaps the one which, of all his designs, he contemplated the longest and in great depth. Perhaps, he felt attracted by the particular formal and iconographical problems presented by the subject. When we were asked to select an artifact to research and write about, the painting of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne caught my eye.The love and compassion in the women’s eyes and their expressions towards the innocent child reminds me of the love I have for my own children. Although much research has been done to discover why Leonardo painted the picture the way he did, it is still unclear. It is unclear why the women appear to be the same age and why he substituted St. John with the lamb for the final painting. Research is still being done on his journals and notes. Leonardo, who was left handed, wrote all his notes in mirror writing, from right to left (Capra, 27).Perhaps further analysis of his notes and sketches will reveal more insight into the painting of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. [pic] Work Citied Bramly Serge. Leonardo the Artist and the Man. Penguin Group. Great Britain. 1994. Print. Budny Virginia. The Art Buletin. Vol. 65, No. 1 (Mar. , 1983), pp. 34-50. Print. Capra Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo. New York. Anchor. December 2008. Print Johannas Nathan. Miteilungen. 36. Bd. H. ? (1992), pp. 85-102. Article. Kemp Martin. Leonardo on Painting. Yale Nota Bene. Yale University. 2001. Print. Marani Pietro C. Leonardo Da Vinci. Abrams Harry N. New York: 2000. Print.

Experimental research and computational research on working memory and visual attention. The WritePass Journal

Experimental research and computational research on working memory and visual attention. Introduction Experimental research and computational research on working memory and visual attention. IntroductionReferences:Related Introduction Psychology is the scientific study of our behaviour and experience (Hayes, 1999, p.1). Through research psychologists can determine the way human beings behave and the experiences they share around them. The scientific methods used in the study of human behaviour and mind have been undertaken through neuropsychological case studies, experimental research and computational modelling, in which they formulate theories, test hypotheses through observation and experiment, and analyse the findings with statistical techniques that help them identify important findings. The following explanation will highlight and describe working memory and visual attention, and how psychologists have sought to understand through two of the following research methods: experimental research and computational modelling. Working memory basically refers to the brain ability to temporarily store information. Visual attention as describe by Triesman et al. (1984), the features that are attractors of covert visual attention are those parts of an image that differ from all the other parts by a single aspect. Psychologists have sought to understand both working memory and visual attention through experimental research and computational modelling. The experimental research was first set up by Wilhelm Wundt in his laboratory in 1879. His first researches were based on visual illusions and perception. In 1885, Herman Ebbinghaus published the first experimental research on memory and after behaviourism was eliminated, the cognitivist argued that all studies connected to psychology and the undertaken of the mind and human behaviour must be conducted through empirical means. A move from the empirical means saw the introduction of computer systems as new ideas for the processing of information. These computer programs were developed and would carry out perceptual processes such as the recognition of complex stimuli. These programs made use of feature detector systems and this discovery of feature detectors can be regarded as an example of different approaches to cognition being combined, with contributions from both neuroscience and computer modelling. On visual attention, there are experiments, which has been conducted by Navon (1977) and proposed that it may be the norm to process the global attributes conducted for visual attention is the one in which subjects to attend to a physical property such as colour or spatial location. There are other experiments like the visual search task. One computational modelling of the visual attention research method is the one conducted by Neisser (1964, 67) and experimented on the considerable variation in the ease which we can identify a given object from other object. Neisser modelled the visual search task by having subjects search among an array of letters represented in paper or on a computer screen for a specified target. The relationship between targets and distracters could then be manipulated. On working memory, psychologists have performed many experiments, which sought to explain how memory is organised, and works within the brain by using the working memory model, which was provided by Baddley, A. and Hitch, G.   It has been possible in recent years to use magnetic and positron scanning devices to observe what is happening in different parts of the brain while people are doing various mental tasks. Additional evidence about brain functioning is gathered by observing the performance of people whose brains have been damaged in identifiable ways. Therefore, in cognitive psychology experiments and theory development are frequently aided by developing computational models of the behaviour of groups of neurons as in the working memory. According to Groome, D. (2006, p.132) working memory is define as the process of storing information and experiences for possible retrieval at some point in the future. This ability to create and bring back memories is very important when it comes to the understanding of cognition and this helps our ability as human beings to function properly. Our memories allow us to store information about the world so that we can understand and deal with future situations on the basis of our experience. Encoding refers to getting information into the system by translating it into a neural code that your brain processes. What happens this a little life when you type on a computer keyboard, as your key strokes are translated into on electrical code that the computer can understand and process storage involves retaining information over time. Once in the system, information must be filed away and saved, as happens when a computer stores information temporarily in the RAM (Random Access Memory) and permanently on a hard drive. Finally, retrieval refers to processes that access stored information. On a computer, retrieval occurs when you give a software command ( e.g: open file) that transfers information from the hard drive back to the RAM and the screen, where you can scroll through it. Keep in mind, however, that this analogy between human and computer is crude. For one thing, people routinely forget and distort information and sometime â€Å"remember† events that never occurre d According to Loftus Bernstein (2005), has described human memory is highly dynamic, and its complexity cannot be fully captured by any existing information processing model. Encoding, storage and retrieval represent what our memory system does with information. Before exploring these processes more fully, let us examine some basic components of memory. The fascinating thing about this unilateral visual neglect is that these effects occur even though the pathways from the receptors to the central nervous system for the neglected information remain intact. Treisman has proposed that separate systems analyze objects different visual features. Through parallel processing, these systems all process information at the same time and we can attend selectively to one feature by effectively blocking the further processing of the others ( Treisman Gelade, 1980). In studies, employing Treisman’s visual search tasks (also called feature search tasks), participants look at a display of different objects on a computer screen, searching for ones, called targets that differ from the others in only one feature. The visual attention search task is one of the most widely used measures in the study of visual perception and attention. A work centred on the locating of targets or items among distracters and the differences in visual attention stimulus between the feature search and the conjunctive search resulted to a reaction time that varies due to the variable number of distracters in which a search item could be found. The research findings were based on the above factor. Treisman and Gelade (1980) provided the Feature Integration Theory (FIT) on focused attention that embraces the conceptualisation of perception of features and objects also known as the visual search method. In trying to integrate the two features-feature search and conjunctive search, Treisman and Gelade (1980) maintained that hence in the process, the primary visual features should be presented in two separate feature maps and in the end of the process integrated in a saliency map and accessed to direct attention to an ar ea where items could easily be seen. In all the visual search tasks, which have been provided for our understanding of visual attention, was the pre-attentive stage that processes targets and non-targets differentially and was provided through the works of Neisser (1967), that in this hypothesis the separable features are independently coded and in parallel through detecting multiple target.   The method is however considered to be very slower mechanism through the ‘focal attentive’ stage. Neisser (1967) approach notes that visual search for dissimilar letters was faster than for similar letters in which he concluded there is no need to attend to background letter in the lists as letters. All what is required is to look for features in a background of rounded features. If background items are similar to the target, it is necessary to consider more features and this would take longer. Neisser also argues that in visual search where only targets required response, the non-targets are rejected in the preliminary stage and allow targets to pass through and be identified. Thus, Neisser concluded that there is a pre-attentive stage of visual processing which allows us to detect a target without having consciously attended to and decode each background item. Another claim on this theory is about pre-attentive grouping process, which suggests that features within a given map can be formed into coherent clusters. But this view was rejected when Quinlan, (2003) mentioned that in the first stage of the visual search task the position of features from the one object doesn’t need to correspond with one another in a coherent fashion, because coordination of information also does not exist between the different feature maps. As this method fails, it requires an additional process for such positional information to be cross-referenced and accessed. References: Treisman A. and Gelade, G. (1980). A feature integration theory of attention Cognitive Psychology, 12(1), p.97-136. Richard Gross (2005). The Science of mind and behaviour in psychology. 4th Ed. London Michael W. Passer and Ronald E. Smith   (2008).   Science of mind and behaviour. 4th Ed. New York. Michael S. Gazzaniga, Todd F. Heatherton and Diane F. Halpern   (2010). Psychological Science. 3th Ed.   New York: Psychology Press. Nick Braisby and Angus Gellatly (2005). Cognitive Psychology. New York. [/level-freee-rstricted]